This Year, Make Resolutions You Can Keep

Limiting 500 texts a day to 300? Actually remembering to clip your toenails every so often? Starting your homework before midnight?

Although these resolutions may reasonable and simplistic, they’re easier said than done for many of today’s high school students.

The holiday season isn’t nicknamed “the most wonderful time of the year” for nothing; during December and January, an overwhelming sense of glee and merriment hangs in the air. Days are spent with friends and family, relaxing and unwinding after a long and stressful year. For many, the New Year brings the promise of a blank slate and hope of improvement. However, this anticipation also brings to mind something else: the dreaded New Year’s resolutions.

New Year’s resolutions are a strange aspect of our culture, promises of self-improvement that are made in order to excuse the fact that we made no notable accomplishments during the preceding year. Often, the resolutions that are made are abandoned simply because they are nearly impossible to achieve. According to a 2007 study conducted by Richard Wiseman from the University of Bristol, out of 3,000 test subjects, 88 percent of those who set New Year’s resolutions failed, despite the fact that 52 percent of the subjects were confident of their success at the beginning.

What does this study suggest about our culture? Perhaps we set goals that are too lofty for ourselves, despite the fact that the majority of resolutions are basic daily improvements– eating healthier foods, enjoying life more, finding more time to spend with family and friends. Maybe we tend to think of improvement as a rapid transformation instead of a slow process that takes time and dedication. Whatever the reason, there’s no denying that the majority of people who begin the New Year with a list of resolutions are simply setting themselves up for failure. What resolutions would people actually be inspired to stick to for an entire twelve months?

Embrace Your Netflix Binges— In a world that thrives on the use of technology and social media, it’s easy to set goals that revolve around pictures, video, and instant news. Instead of the typical resolution to find more time to socialize with friends and family, teenagers may find it easier to make a resolution to simply lock themselves in their bedrooms and watch five hours of Netflix every day. The world of instant movies and TV shows is a welcome relief from the stresses of everyday life.

Expand Your Selfie Collection— Instead of taking one selfie a day, take five, just for the added variety. Others may call you vain or conceited, but this practice will boost your self-esteem and make it easy to update Instagram every week instead of once a month.

Never Skip Dessert— Another common resolution is to improve one’s health by eating more fruits and vegetables and cutting out soda. This is the goal that people usually give up on within the first week of the New Year. When dealing with post-holiday season sugar cravings, resolve crumbles in the face of cupcakes and cookies. But in the grand scheme of things, what does it really matter? Life is short, so instead of making a goal to limit our consumption of sugary treats, maybe we should be eating those chocolate chip cookies and red velvet cupcakes while we still have the chance.

Break a Sweat During School— The goal of finding more time to exercise is especially crucial to combat our nation’s rising obesity rates. For a busy high school student, it can be difficult to balance homework, friends, extracurricular activities, a job, and a school sport or other form of exercise. But at Highland, it’s easy to find simple and effective forms of exercise that can be done during school. Students are often seen sprinting down the hall between classes at the sound of the one-minute bell, and making the long trek up the stairs from the first floor to the third floor is enough to leave anyone breathless. It’s not difficult to break a sweat when one finds the right opportunities for a little physical activity.

Actually Get a Good Night’s Sleep— Set your huge stack of homework aside, give in to the yawning and drooping eyelids, and try to fall asleep before 12 am. Although your teachers may be angry about your unfinished assignments, you’ll feel refreshed and awake during first period for once.

Do Your Chores (Well, Some of Them)– Other resolutions are simpler and require less of a commitment, but are still just as important. Remembering to brush and floss one’s teeth every day, actually making the bed instead of leaving it as a crumpled pile of blankets, and folding and putting away clean laundry rather than leaving it strewn across the room are all goals that will help make life easier. Only hitting the snooze button once instead of three times is also a useful goal for many of today’s sleep-deprived teenagers.

The problem with New Year’s resolutions is that they force us to take ourselves and our goals too seriously without allowing rooms for mistakes. The disappointment and anger one experiences when failing to complete a goal drives many away from the aspect of New Year’s resolutions. Perhaps for 2015, we should resolve never to make a New Year’s resolution again and simply do the things which make us happy in life–the only resolution we will ever be able to keep.